My question is how much speed do you need? Always more, is an acceptable answer, of course. I ask because I find that most times when I get into heavy downloads, my rate is not restricted by what my provider supplies to me but by a mix of bottlenecks out along the internet path to where I'm going and the bottleneck or cpabality of the endpoint server I'm requesting the data from.

Due to these inevitable bottlenecks out in the vast world that is the Internet, very rarely, do I see speeds getting close to what my provider is actually capable of giving me. The exception is when I download something from within close logical proximity to my provider, so I have less chance of hitting third party bottlenecks.


Now bear in mind that I work for an ISP but I just wonder how much ISP speed is actually practical verses price when it seems to me that most bottlenecks can actually be occurring somewhere way past your ISP, depending on where you are going and who you are getting it from.

I say this not to defend any low bandwidth ISPs but as a caution to some people who might be paying a big premium for the fastest access possible but not necessarily getting much better results overall than someone with a slower offering. It depends on what you do and where you are going for your data.

I hope my sales dept. doesn't read this.....

Last edited by Murph; 12/10/08 03:18 PM.
With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.